


Change the World

by PompousPickle



Category: Kamen Rider Build
Genre: Gen, I have a lot of feelings okay, MAJOR spoilers for episode 31, first encounters, liberties taken with Katsuragi's dad oops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-17
Updated: 2018-04-17
Packaged: 2019-04-24 05:29:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14348919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PompousPickle/pseuds/PompousPickle
Summary: When Katsuragi Takumi saw Banjou Ryuuga for the first time, it was through thick glass.





	Change the World

When Katsuragi Takumi saw Banjou Ryuuga for the first time, it was through thick glass.

Takumi didn’t have many friends his age, if any. Some of the other researchers had children, but Takumi didn’t get along with any of them, really. They were all nice enough, but none of the played the same games as Takumi. They were focused on the fantastical, the play-pretend, the imaginary. Takumi just wanted to explore what was already there, to take all the real pieces in the world and turn them into something magical. The toys at INSET’s daycare never really provided that. Building blocks were fun to an extent, but by the time he turned nine years old, that grew too juvenile to keep him occupied. He needed something with potential. Something that captivated him. Something that _meant_ something.

Banjou Ryuuga was just that.

“He looks just like a regular boy, doesn’t he, Takumi-kun?” Shinobu laid his hands on Takumi’s shoulders, shaking gently as the boy looked on. Takumi could see his father’s face dimly reflecting in the glass, smiling wryly as his fingers flexed around his son’s shoulders. Takumi looked past him, focusing on the boy in the room. One of the other researchers was looking over him, hooking up a small machine as he watched them warily, squirming uselessly in his chair as cold metal met skin. “He’s not though,” his father finally explained. “He’s so much more. The next step in evolution, and perhaps the key to answering all the questions that our research has been unearthing.”

Shinobu’s hands always tightened when he said _our_ research. He always glanced down at Takumi, as though the boy were somehow involved. As though it were as much his project as everyone else in the lab. Takumi never quite understood the tendency. Though on second thought, he never quite understood a lot of what other people did. Still, he only was allowed into the lab when it was deemed safe enough. He was forbidden to touch anything, and could only ask questions during approved periods. And yet his father acted as though he were some vital organ to the project.

(Takumi realized, many years in the future, that it was just another subtle mechanization of his father. Another step in getting his son to follow in his footsteps. Another push towards the scientific pursuits that lead them both to self-destruction.)

Ryuuga looked over towards the window as a woman put a tourniquet around his arm and prepared it for pulling a blood sample. The window was a one-way mirror. There was no way that the boy could have seen Takumi through the glass, but somehow, he could have sworn that their eyes met.

And at just that simple glance, something shifted inside of Takumi. Even at such a young age, he knew it meant something. He knew he had to learn more. He had to discover more. And he had to help. For every boy chained up to a chair as scientist stuck a needle into his arm. For every boy chained up by his father to follow in a life devoted to science. He had to pull the world apart, and he had to one day put it back together again.

“Banjou Ryuuga is going to change the world, my son.”

Takumi only nodded.


End file.
